“Everything. Maybe even too many personal details,” he said before he left.
CHAPTER 3
I was surprised at what Mason Fields said when he called suggesting we get dinner. Well, I wasn’t surprised about the dinner part. We had been doing that a lot lately. But he said he had some kind of problem. Mason had always been the person who fixed problems. If he’d had any before, he’d never told me about them. But then our relationship was a little odd.
I liked to think of us as friends, though since I’d broken up with Barry, Mason had been trying to knock it up a notch—to what, friends with benefits? It was hard to tell exactly because Mason compartmentalized his life. Other than knowing he was divorced and had two kids, his family had always been off limits to me. In fact that had been the stumbling block to us having more than a friendship before. While we both agreed we weren’t looking to get married, I needed a little more than he seemed willing to offer. Mason was in the middle of my life, but I felt like he kept me on the sidelines of his.
When he wasn’t spending time with me, Mason was a top-flight attorney to the stars. He was the one naughty celebrities turned to to get out of trouble. Mason was very good at getting people out of trouble. He’d done it for me a number of times.
With the summer days still long, it wasn’t completely dark when I walked out of Shedd & Royal. The evening had cooled off only slightly and the air still felt balmy. I drove the greenmobile home. I was beginning to see my son’s point about the car. It was a 1993 190E Mercedes in a color I called teal green and while I thought of it as a classic car, it was beginning to show its age. I left it in the driveway and didn’t go in my house. To go in was to get sucked into a vortex of animals and things to take care of and never get out and I could see Mason had parked on the street and was leaning against his car, checking his BlackBerry. He put it away as soon as I got close, and his face broke out into a happy grin before he hugged me in greeting.
He was still dressed in his work clothes. The light color of the taupe suit made it seem summery. All of his suits were custom tailored and made out of a fine wool that draped perfectly. His blue dress shirt had the collar opened. As usual a lock of his dark hair had fallen across his forehead. I always thought it made him look earnest and hardworking. And I thought the sprinkling of gray made him look distinguished.
“What’s up?” I said as I got in the car. “You said you had a problem.” I might have seemed a little too eager, but it was the first time he was letting me into his life.
“It can wait,” he said as he steered the car onto the street. “Tell me about your day. I could use a little diversion.”
I made a face. Was he backing down? But then I fell for the bait. I mean, who doesn’t want to talk about their day?
We ended up at a neighborhood Italian restaurant. Tarzanians had been eating there for decades thanks to the good food and friendly atmosphere. We took a table by the window and picked up our menus. I didn’t know why I bothered looking at mine. Mason always did the ordering. He knew what I liked better than I did.
When the waiter came by, Mason ordered a Caesar salad for two. They made their own dressing and it was delicious. When Mason ordered several appetizers for us to share, it was like he’d read my mind. With the hot weather and late hour, I didn’t feel like anything too heavy.
The waiter had just brought us a basket of hot homemade bread and I was pouring some olive oil on my bread plate, when I noticed someone come in from the back. Kelly walked through the tables, up to the counter, obviously there for food to go. I started to wave, but she didn’t see me and I let it go.
“You know her?” Mason said.
“Not exactly,” I answered. I started to explain about going to her house, but then realized it was better